Wicker Park Fest Announces Lineup, Two New Arts Sections Added

By Chuck Sudo in Arts & Entertainment on May 23, 2012 3:30PM

Wicker Park Fest has become one of the largest street festivals in the city. running down Milwaukee Avenue from the Damen/NorthMIlwaukee "Crotch" intersection of Wicker Park to Paulina, over 65,000 people are expected to show up for this year's event, scheduled for July 28-29.

The musical acts for the festival have been announced and its a solid mix of bands. If you're looking for local acts, head to the center stage where Kill Hannah will don the eyeliner and play July 28 and the always working Joe Pug performs July 29. The North and South stages are reserved for the national touring acts like Lucero, Cursive, The Drums and The Budos Band. All are great live having to pick between Lucero (South stage, July 29) and the Budos Band (North stage, July 29) seems a bit cruel.

The festival is adding two new arts sections this year. Redmoon Theatre is presenting a piece called The Sonic Boom, a massive battery powered vehicle, sculpture, and performance platform. Redmoon performers will activate the two hydraulic performance platforms and mobile DJ booth with spectacle performance and sound pieces, a portion of which will be fully composed in advance and a portion that will be structured for live improvisation during the event. This piece will be on Honore Ave., next to Native Foods, from Milwaukee to the alley.

Defibrillator Gallery will exhibit a series of large-scale inflatable sculptures by local artists Claire Ashley, Marianne Kim, Helmut Heiss, among others, that will be installed each day of the festival and activated with live movement and spectacle based performances. This work will be installed on Wood St. from Milwaukee to Beach St. across from the family area.